


Ceiling Mirror

by salamandererg



Series: The Beatles [3]
Category: The Beatles
Genre: Don't remember if this Eric dude is an OMC or a real person, Drunkeness, Fictional Characterizations of Real People, Homophobic Language, I'm thinking OMC, Jealousy, M/M, Real Person Slash - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 07:02:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19420882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamandererg/pseuds/salamandererg
Summary: Clichéd plot of Drunk!Paul getting hit on by a sleazy gay man and John has to come to his rescue.





	Ceiling Mirror

“‘Three drinks and he’s yours’, indeed. He’s gonna cause quite a scandal, ahahaha!”

John heard the whispered quote from nearby, he couldn’t identify who said it, but he knew exactly who they were talking about. It’s who everyone was talking about, Paul. Paul McCartney, who was now chatting up one of Brian’s _friends_ (as in, he was _that way_ ) like he was chatting up a bird, or rather, like _he_ was the bird, as the man was flirting right back with him. Paul was giggling and hanging all over the other man, trying not to spill what might have been his fifth drink.

“Cheap drunk,” John whispered to himself with a smile. ‘Finally’, he thought, ‘It’s gonna be someone else with a scandal attached to their name. Even better that it’s Paul.’ John looked around the room; everyone’s eyes were surreptitiously glued to Paul and whatever his next action might be, they all had knowing smiles on their faces and were laughing into their drinks to their friends. John even saw a few of them glance his way to see how he was taking it, John just ignored them and continued drinking and pretending to listen to the people around him, who were also pretending not to notice Paul. 

He had been doing a good job at ignoring them, until they all got a little quiet and a skinny woman with heavy eye make-up made a very high “Oh!” noise and they all turned toward the door. John also did so, just in time to see Brian’s friend subtly pulling Paul out the door, his eyes narrowed. There was no doubt what the campy man was taking Paul out to do, probably to get his chance to say he shagged a Beatle. John wasn’t going to allow that. 

He slammed his drink down and aware of everyone’s eyes on him, pushed himself up and purposefully strode toward the door to ‘rescue’ his friend. The whole party started twittering once he left the room,

“Oh my goodness, what, was he jealous or something?”

“Ha! ‘Jealous of who?’ is the question.”

“You’d think after the whole ‘Spain Thing’ that those boys would be a bit more careful.”

“I can’t believe that just happened!”

“Oh my god, he brushed up against me!”

“You’re so lucky!”

\--

“Paul!”

John called out to his partner who was making his way down the long driveway to the man’s car. Paul made a giant loop as he turned around to see who was yelling at him. Paul’s face lit up when he realized that it was John. He raised his glass in greeting, a dumb smile gracing his face,

“Johnny!”

“Where ya goin’ Paul?”

John’s tone was suspicious, as the question was directed more toward the more sober man rather than his inebriated band mate. Paul gestured wildly with his drink as he answered, the man on his arm standing coolly, not intimidated by John.

“John, this man says that he has a mirror on his ceiling! Can you believe that?”

“No, no I can’t.” John glares at the man, who wasn’t even ashamed at being caught so red-handedly. “So, where were you planning on taking him?”

“Aw, I was just gonna take him for a little ride.”

The black haired man said with a sick, little smile on his face, his arm wrapped around Paul’s.

“He said he was gonna show me his ceiling Johnny! Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.” Paul chanted his name until it turned into something like ‘Jngry’. John smiled amusedly at Paul, who smiled back.

“You’re sloshed mate.”

“No!” Paul disagreed vehemently, “No, look, I haven’t even finished my drunk!” Paul twisted his drink around, causing some to splash out. “See, still full! IIIIIIIIII’m not drunk!” He flourished.

The man who took him out smiled back at John, “See? He’s not drunk.”

“No. Paul, say good bye to the scheming toad and let’s go back to the party.”

John gestured with his hand for Paul to follow him and started to turn around, confident that Paul would come.

“Nooooo, John, noooooooo. That party’s boring, it’s boring! I wanna go with, with—hey, wasser name again?”

“Eric, love.”

Eric smiled at Paul, giving him a lusty once-over and causing John to glare at him. Paul giggled,

“He called me ‘love’ John, how funny is that?”

John’s expression turned hard, “Paul, I’m taking you right now.”

John grabbed Paul by the arm and forced him away from Eric. Paul struggled with him, trying to pull out of John’s grasp and not spill his drink at the same time.

“John, no, I don’t wanna—”

“Come on mate, he said he didn’t want to go with you. Why can’t you just let him decide for himself?”

John clenched his teeth and threw Paul on the ground to round back to face the other man.

“You don’t think I know what you’re all about? He’s pissed!” John gestured to his friend on the ground, who was just content to sit there. “He can’t even see straight, let alone deduce you’re taking him out to bugger him! You make me sick.”

Eric rolled his eyes, not intimidated by John’s fierce expression.

“Oh, please, you can’t blame me for trying. It’s a long, hard, race, but Paul’s a pretty trophy. Either by hook or by crook, the prize is still the same.”

“He’s not a goddamned trophy! He’s a human being, not just a piece of ass that you bloody queers can try and lay. You don’t even try and get to know him; all you see is a pretty face, you don’t see that he’s a beautiful person, that he’s, that he’s…”

John left off, utterly horrified with himself for letting all that sentimental shit slip out of his mouth. What, did he drink too much at the party? He stumbled backward, as if that action could rewind time and he could stop himself from saying all that. Eric, however, looked very pleased.

“Oh, no, do go on, maybe you’re the one who should be taking him home tonight? Such an impassioned speech, I had no idea you felt that strongly toward him—”

“Just shut your bloody gob! Paul, get up! We’re leaving this shit bag.”

Paul, who had forgotten about mirrored ceilings, and unfinished ‘drunks’, dizzily pushed himself up and followed John as best he could into the woods by their host’s house. He eventually caught up with John and threw his arms around his friend’s neck happily, but was quickly shoved off by the seething man.

Paul pouted, but continued following John.

“Johnny, why are you so angry? He was just gonna take me for a ride.”

“Fuck Paul, and you were just gonna go with him weren’t you? It didn’t even occur to you that he was taking you there to... God, why did you do that?”

John sat down at the base of a tree and put his head between his legs, pulling at his hair.

“What if I hadn’t have seen, huh? Where would you have been then, waking up in some stranger’s bed, some _bloke’s_ bed with a burning pain in your arse? ‘Cause you know he would’ve, he would’ve just stuck his dick right up there, no thought to you, no thought to your career, no thought to m—, to, to anything. Just to get his rocks off. Fuckin’ queer.”

Paul just stood by John, blankly staring down at him. He couldn’t really understand all of what John was saying, but by the tone of the words he could tell John was angry and sad. Toward the end of John’s rebuking of him, he sat down and laid his head on the older man’s shoulder. John slowly shook his head and picked it up to look at Paul.

“John, I don’t feel well.” Paul said in a small voice.

John laughed shortly, and stretched out his legs.

“Join the club.”

“Oh, yeah? Does your stomach hurt too John?”

“No, not my stomach.” John looked to the side at Paul’s dark hair and sighed deeply. “My heart.”

“Why does your heart hurt John?”

“Because, Macca,” John rolled his eyes. “Just _because_.”

Paul nodded, this answer apparently satisfactory to him. He adjusted his head a few times, John’s shoulder too bony to be truly comfortable, before finally getting the bright idea to settle on the older man’s lap. John stiffened for a second, before relaxing and bringing his hand to stroke Paul’s hair. This continued for several minutes until Paul broke the silence,

“John?”

“Yeah?”

“I think there’s a bug crawling on my leg.” 

John chuckled, “Maybe we should go back to the party now Paul.”

Paul picked up his head and swatted at his leg, there was nothing there.

“No, I still wanna see a ceiling mirror. Do you have a ceiling mirror John?”

“No, Paul, I don’t, but if I ever get one, you’ll be the first to get a look at it.”

Paul smiled and settled back on John’s lap.

“Good.”

John smiled and sighed, continuing to caress Paul’s hair. He let the butterflies in his stomach loop around his spine and settle in his heart, diffusing into a peaceful warmth.

“Good.”

\--

End

**Author's Note:**

> Posted on my personal livejournal a, like, really long time ago.


End file.
